After a lot of fighting with my computer, I managed to spit out the following:

LOCAL = A high quality, 44.5MB MP4 encode

DIRECT = A high quality, 76.6MB AVI encode

===== Technical =====

This is a very spoiler heavy movie!

Size: 640x489
Codecs: XviD (Divx5 compatible)
x264 (MP4 Container)
Time to complete: Including the time it took to rip the DVDs and edit the song, approximately 90 hours of total prep and editing that took place over the course of a little over a month. Most of this was done in the first two weeks, but I then stalled over the last 15 seconds of the amv for multiple weeks. And then 6 days of intense troubleshooting to achieve a proper 264 encode.
Sources: DVDs and Raws.
Programs Used: Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0, VDM, Audacity, AMVapp 3.0

===== Recommendations =====

There are a lot of fast clips, but not any special affects; nevertheless please be careful as such things can cause headache and sometimes seizures.

===== Title =====

"Nightmare Manifest" is a fairly simple title that easily reflects the idea of the piece. Lina wields the power of the Lord of Nightmares - the "Over-God", if you will, of the Slayers world. By the god's own admonition, Lina's highest level spells and eventual possession by said god are the Lord of Nightmares manifesting in the world.

===== Concept =====

There's not much more to be said here other than expansions upon what was mentioned in the "Title" section. The basic concept of the movie actually occurred to me roughly two years ago now when I was borrowing someone's car and their CD started playing "Stray Bullet" by KMFDM. Perhaps it was because I had just been on a Slayers kick (trying to show it to all of my friends), but whatever the reason I immediately thought that the music and lyrics fit Slayers, and more specifically Lina, perfectly. The actual creation of the video was put off until last month when I acquired the DVDs of the first season of Slayers and for the first time ever actually managed to cut the song down to a reasonable two minutes without it sounding like trash.

One of the main themes I worked with right off the bat was gender. This is pretty obvious in that the lyrics are "illegitimate son of God" and Lina, despite many jokes stating otherwise, is definitely a woman. The so-called "Lord of Nightmares" has, likewise, always been portrayed and even voiced as a woman. This, however, has more to do with translation than anything else, as the word originally used for "Lord" is more or less gender-neutral. However, the concept of an 'illegitimate son' has historically been regarded as one who is not the true son. Well. A daughter certainly fits the bill. ;)

Other than that, the pictures pretty much follow the words from introduction to manifestation to aftermath - all sections fairly distinguishable within the video itself. It begins with Lina gaining knowledge, follows through with her trials and tribulations amid flashes of divinity and ends with her as her, having overcome it all for the better. This 'storyline' is part of the reason I have a hard time categorizing this piece, as it has elements of 'drama', 'character profile', and 'action'.

Lastly, I contrast Lina with other choice characters; Valgaav, Xelloss, Filia, and Rezo. Xelloss and Filia perform as they do in the series; as reflections of the extremes in humankind (Lina). Rezo is a demonstration of false divinity and desperate struggle drowned in chaos and giving rise to Lina's ultimate tango with the Lord of Nightmares. And finally, Valgaav, whose experience and character very much parallels Lina. Though not human, he has both ryuzoku sensibilities and mazoku desires/instinct fueling the chaos within him. Like Lina, he has overcome a good many obstacles and even 'communes' with a god who has been consumed by the chaos of its opposing natures. Lina, in contrast, prevails through her 'true' chaos and the Golden Lord who is it. A strong irony considering her 'illegitimacy'.

===== The Song =====

As I said, the song was originally about 5 minutes long and I trimmed it down in Audacity to where it currently stands (roughly 3 minutes). The adopted lyrics for the video are as follows: